COPA Flight Log - Electronic Logbook. Part 1

COPA in conjunction with Skymark Technologies is offering members a free copy of COPA Flight Log electronic logbook. As an aircraft owner I have to be frugal, and the price is right. I'm a self confessed geek so my system is littered with all kinds of software that I have tried so what's one more download. I'm also skeptical, I've been in IT long enough to know that some free software isn't worth what it cost, on the other hand some free software is better than any you could buy no matter the cost. So off I go testing the software.

Since I'm a geek you might think I could write my own electronic log book. Well I have, but I'm also a pilot so given the choice between using brain cells writing software and flying I would rather fly. So I do have a spread sheet, and an Access database in addition to my hard copy logs, but neither is anything special. But I do know what I want from an electronic log book.

The first step is to get the swag installed. The COPA page has some nice screen shots, the standard download link and a form to request a serial number, more on that later. The download is an executable Install Shield package weighing in at 2.66MB. IE (shudder) will probably offer to install it for you, follow your heart.Firefox drops it in the location of your choice where opening it starts a quick and painless Windows (if you agree to the fine print) install.

To get a serial number you have to give your name and an email address. The serial number is related to your name. You have to give both to the software to activate it. Very common now but I don't have to like it. You are also given the option of opting in to marketing info email. Since I have my own domain and email server, I can create and destroy addresses at will, so I hand over an address and I'll take the hype, for now at least. I was thanked for my interest and told my serial number would be mailed to me soon. That was at 1840 so let's see what soon means.

While I'm waiting what kind of things do I want to see. Well, I've been flying for quite a while so I would like to be able to start using it without having to enter in all my flights. But I would like to be able to go back and enter all my flights over time so that my entire flying history is eventually in electronic format. It would be fantastic if I could import the data from Access or the Excel but that would have required them to know my schema, or me to write a translation schema so I don't seriously expect this. It should track all Transport Canada recency and currency milestones but it would be very nice if it would allow me to create my own checks to cover recency specified by flying clubs or organizations like Hope Air or CASARA.

The email with my serial number arrived by 2242. I don't know if 4 hours is typical, but you may end up doing this install over a couple of evenings because of this. I had gone to bed before the mail arrived so play had to wait until I got home from work again. Armed with the serial number I finished the install and found out two things I like:

• It has a feature to find new versions. The pop up contains information on the changes and were to go to get the new version.
• There is a logbook import feature and a comma separated data file translator. Importing data from Excel or any other program that will produce a CSV file should be easy.

I will let you know how the update, and import goes once I've worked through those steps.